Hide and Seek
by A. S. Rainwater
Summary: Sequel to WYTYKH, read it first to follow... Alice has a vision of Andie with Aro, and madness ensues. Join the Cullens as they deal with the latest crap from our favorite villians. Alice/OC femslash give it a try
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of this. It all belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I own Andie, and all the glory of her talent. Blah.**

**AlicePOV:**

I felt her hand slide up my thigh before I even smelled her scent, and I peeked around the book I was reading to see Andie's playful grin from where she was leaned over my lap. "I've hunted," she said suggestively, giving me a wink of her orange eyes. "You know what that means." She bounced her eyebrows at me, and I couldn't help but laugh at her. My mate was so adorable.

"No, I don't, actually," I said evasively, looking back at my book to tease her, and she growled a little, her suggestive approach evaporating in to her pleading tone.

"Alice, you promised," she whined, snatching the book from my hands and throwing it literally out of the window. I gave her an annoyed glare, but it only made her roll her eyes at me, sitting up and putting her hands on her hips, looking at me sternly.

"And I have plenty of time to follow through on that promise," I answered with a maddening calm. "Eternity stretches way past that one hunt, you know."

There it was. Oh god, not that look. Her bottom lip extended, the corners of her mouth pulled down, and there goes that pitiful (well, as pitiful as Andie can be) sheen to her eyes. I sighed dramatically, giving up my teasing game, and sat up from my pillows, touching her face. "Okay, stop looking at me like that," I giggled, and she couldn't help but grin, then leaned in and pecked my lips affectionately.

"Thank you! How far do you want me to count?" she asked me excitedly, and I looked ahead to see the route best to hide from her and keep her away from humans at the same time... I didn't want any more near-accidents.

"Count to three hundred and seventy five thousand, then come find me."

She frowned at me pointedly. "I am not doing that at a human pace, Alice, no way. I don't have the patience to wait that long."

"Okay, fine," I grumbled, looking again for a shorter route, just as effective in her training. I knew she would find me, anyway, no matter how far I hid from her when we played her favorite game. Andrea Fowler-soon-to-be-Cullen was an infallible tracker. The Volturi's Demetri was finally ousted out of his throne as the known best, at least to our family.

Andie's first trip to the Volturi was looming closer, though, as I had adamantly refused to go until she had trained for at least a year; she was nearly eight months old now to this life. Her control was much better than it had been for the first four months, during which the accident almost happened. We were out on a hunt, she was on a trail in full tracker mode, all instinct and form, and I was distracted as always by the way watching her hunt made shiver in the best of ways, and how hunting always seemed to end in her insatiable taste for me, as well. I wasn't paying any attention to the fact that Andie had latched onto another trail, and was barreling towards a new target soul-line until the scent hit me a mile later. "_Andie, no!_" I yelled at her, but of course she didn't stop. This was the first time she had smelled a real human. All the human blood she had smelled before was contained in bags.

I overtook her and fought her backwards, then we began uprooting trees as we tumbled through them, and she was trying to put a beating on me at first; until somehow it ended up with furious kissing and touching, and throwing each other around in a completely different way, snarls and growls bouncing from tree to tree, that somehow ended up being pants and moans. We confused ourselves sometimes with the extremity of emotions our mating spurred.

I was just relieved that I was able to distract her.

"Give me an hour," I said with an impish smile, and then I poked her shoulder, trying to be firm with her for once. "And no cheating, you can't use your physical senses if you are trying to hone your talent, love. So no sniff-sniff, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah... I was losing concentration thinking about the promise you made for when I found you," she defended herself, crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes at me in a dare for argument. I suppose I can say she picked up human mannerisms from us quite well. "You know what that does to me."

I grinned evilly, making the game that much more interesting by leaning in to her ear and whispering, "Just like I want you to take me from behind when you find me today?"

She stiffened and a snarl rolled deep in her throat as she looked at me with her eyes darkening. "Your hour starts now," she told me quietly, and I took a deep breath to catch a whiff of the scent rising around us.

I leaned forward once more, giving her a kiss that I knew she would want to follow. "See you soon," I said against her lips as I pulled away, then I turned and jumped through the window to take off for Canada. I would have to swim part of the way, but this is where Andie differs from other trackers: they lose the trail at water because the scent washes away too quickly. My mate can still follow her soul-line, and stay on course.

Soul-line. Andie gave it the term, and Edward tried to explain to us what she meant by it. Once Andie locked onto a soul she knew it forever, the color and its owner would never fade from behind her retinas, and her brain stored the information away in the place responsible for the ability itself. When said owner of the colored soul would bodily change location, the soul would leave an imprint of itself on the energy built around our life force, created by the earth itself. Andie could follow this ethereal line and it would always lead to the physical body of that soul, and no living thing could ever hide from her had she a mind to seek it out.

Unheard of in our world. My Andie was the only one of her talent, and it scared me to take her to Volterra to introduce her to Aro. His efforts against us would redouble, he would pound us in to submission and demand the ones he wanted join him or watch the ones they love die. I know. I've seen it as the possible future. But it would not be wise to stay away from the blasted place, either. He would hear words from others, and visit us himself to question the addition to our already large coven. That was another flash I received while weighing out the options in my mind. By far, it seemed to be prudent to stick to protocol and introduce my mate properly.

I looked ahead to see the course and its safety status for Andie, seeing all was still clear as I ran through the last bit of trees before I would take my dive from the looming cliffs, twirling in the air as I fell, a serene smile on my face. It felt like flying for a moment before I plunged into the waves crashing against the rocks below. I stayed beneath the water, taking my time treading through it, faster than a human, but still slower than I could have swam. The ocean was always a wonder to me, seeing how the world worked beneath the water, and how it teemed with life, its own universe in many ways. I tried not to attack marine life, and stayed well away from endangered species by principle, so as I entered more northern waters, I only grinned at the sight of the blue whales and then orcas a little later.

I thought about how long it had been since I had left the house, and figured Andie would be about to start following me. She was fast, too, faster than Edward, even. It would not take her long to catch up, and I had made proposals to her that I am sure she would immediately act on. I felt a zing ring through me, and I swam a little faster, ready to make it to shore so I could reach my chosen destination. I couldn't wait to get there, and Andie was going to love it.

* * *

><p><strong>AndiePOV:<strong>

I sat very still after Alice disappeared from my sight, holding my breath so as not to inhale anymore of the scent she purposely stirred up before taking off to hide from me. I shook my head as I thought about the torture that woman put me through day to day, and how it annoyed me that she knew I adored every second of it. I laid back and hooked my fingers behind my head as I read the lyrics scrawled above our bed for the millionth time since I'd awoken immortal. This was the worst part of playing Hide and Seek with Alice: the wait. She had to plan the routes and lay the line, and then I had to follow some time after. The more I trained, the longer the wait. Her soul stood out strongest among the threads of colors that made up my sight when I concentrated, and I looked down the lilac string as far as I could, until it disappeared over a cliff some miles away. Sheesh. Water, again. I think my mate saw my training as chances for her to go swimming. She could at least wear a bikini or something to make my soaked clothes worthwhile.

"Andie! Don't sit up there and be a sulky little goth, come down here and hit up some Xbox!" Emmett said from the living room, and I heard foot steps coming through the door with a scent that could only mean Jacob.

"Yeah, shrimp, let's hit it up two on two!" Jacob added, and with another sniff I deduced that it was Embry in his company.

I came down to the living room and found all three large boys lounged around in various spots, and Rosalie next to Emmett, very pointedly holding her breath with a fixed expression of disgust on her beautiful face. "Smell something unpleasant, Rose?" I asked lightly, taking a seat next to Embry, who draped a long arm around my shoulders, winking at Rosalie.

"Doesn't smell as disgusting as it looks," she murmured back to me, narrowing her eyes at the way Embry rested his arm around me. "Embry, if you want to keep that limb, I suggest you take it off my sister's mate. _Now._"

Embry didn't move, just rolled his eyes. "Flea knows I'm not trying to get with her girl. Andie is just my little buddy, tell her, Andie."

I just looked at Rosalie. Me and Embry were cool, but close enough for physical contact, I wasn't so sure. The beast in me was screaming its defiance against the touch of his stinking flesh.

"Why are you always here, now?" Rosalie outbursted, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees. "You mutts used to whine and complain and walk around here with your ears flat and your tails tucked, but now you are _always_ smelling up my house!"

Both the wolves blushed, like they'd been caught doing something they shouldn't. I raised an eyebrow with my soon-to-be sister-in-law.

"You wouldn't want to phase as much, either, if all you see is Leah and Kalilah fucking like rabbits," Jake muttered darkly, scowling at the screen as he ran twos with Emmett.

"Dude, are you gay?" Emmett and Embry asked simultaneously, looking at Jacob like they didn't know him.

"I'm imprinted," he answered evenly, and Embry rolled his eyes at his best friend, removing his arm from around me.

"I wouldn't mind sticking around, being wolfy, but its not worth having to hear Leah bitch about it afterwards," Embry told Emmett, who nodded in understanding.

"I get plenty of earfuls of lesbian sex around here, too," Emmett told Embry, giving me a fish eye, to which Rosalie planted her palm flat against the side of his head with a resounding smack.

I merely shrugged. I was used to Emmett's sly remarks and taunts about Alice and me by now, but I wasn't so used to it that I did not appreciate his wife's attempts at controlling the words falling from his mouth. "Can't say I'm not satisfied," I said with a smirk, running up behind Jacob on-screen and throwing a grenade at the back of his head. "Alice is like a machine... and I am damn happy about it."

"Hear, hear!" Embry said jovially, as he took a turn throwing another grenade at Jake's respawn, making Jacob swear loudly and jump to his feet, a slight tremor in his shoulders.

"Oh, don't phase, Jake," I said coolly, as I locked a sniper onto his head as he respawned again. "Don't be angry that you're getting your ass handed to you by a girl."

"By _two _girls, you mean," he spat, scowling at Embry, who grinned lazily as he had a minor dispute with Emmett onscreen.

"Where is Flea, anyway?" Embry asked a second later, his brow furrowed with the unusual presence of me without her.

"Hiding from me," I answered, swearing when Emmett ousted me out of a building. "I have to leave in a few to find her."

"I'm so jealous," a new voice came from the doorway, and all five of us in the den looked up to see Seth leaned there, watching the television sullenly.

"Why are you jealous, man?" Embry asked his pack mate, who shrugged, looking at the floor.

"Everyone has a mate but me," he muttered so low that I nearly had to strain to catch his words.

"I don't have a mate," Embry pointed out, but Seth looked at him, shaking his head.

"You don't count... Weirdos get skipped on the mate line, just like assholes, and seeing as you're both..."

Embry tossed his controller to one side as he hopped to his feet and took off after Seth into the yard, both phasing to wolf, and the growls and snaps could be heard for three miles before it finally faded into nothing. "I guess that's a forfeit, so I suppose you win by default," I said to Emmett and Jacob with a deep sigh, also standing up. "I need to get a move on, anyway. See you guys later."

"Have fun!" Emmett said with a friendly wave. "I heard you get a little back door action when you catch her today!"

My mouth fell open. How does he know that? There was no way he could have heard her tell me that unless he was right on the door when she whispered it to me... "You spying on us again, Emmett?" I asked him, and Rose also lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow to her mate, who sat there stuttering.

"W-what? No! I was just walking by your door, I swear!"

I left the room to another echoing smack, shaking my head and laughing at Emmett as he tried to explain himself and apologize to Rosalie, thinking that it was a good thing that Esme and Carlisle had moved to the manor in England a few months back. Esme would have a cow about the way we talked to each other nowadays. When we all moved back in with our parents, it would take some work to put the crude mannerisms on the back burner.

Out in nature a few minutes later, I stopped to close my eyes and shut down the rest of my senses to focus on the lilac string that was vibrating and pulling me closer to my mate. There it was, shining as bright as it ever had, and I shot off in the direction it led. Even with my eyes closed, I hit no obstacles in my run, and I knew before I fell that I had reached the lip of the cliff I'd "seen" with my talent earlier. Her thread sparkled in my dark vision, and I felt the pressure of water all around me as I propelled my way through it, still grasping hard onto the string of soul-line. Northern Pacific, she swam into... Vancouver?_ Really? British Columbia? _I shook my head at her unpredictability. What the hell was in Canada?

I followed the line for what seemed like forever before I felt it thrum with a physical completion, telling me I had found the main vessel for the soul itself. I opened my eyes.

I was directly on the side of a mountain, and when I looked below I could see the reflection of the sun cast on the clear water of the basin lake that had accumulated with the snow melt from the caps above me. There was that color: purple mountain majesty. I was shocked by the sheer beauty of the spot for only a moment before something dropped from the tree beside me, settling a familiar weight on my back and slim arms wrapped around my neck from behind. "I missed you," her voice whispered in my ear, and I felt myself relax into her embrace.

"It's beautiful, Alice," I breathed, still scanning the amazing landscape around us, and she answered with a giggle.

"I knew you'd like it," she replied, hopping down from my back and coming to stand beside me. "This was the first spot I ever hunted in Canada, years ago. The large game here is abundant."

"Why haven't we hunted here?"

She shrugged, her yellow eyes surveying the surroundings still. "We are usually in a hurry to get it out of the way so we can do other things. We can start travelling to hunt, if you like."

I bit back the smile that I almost let slip, and turned to face her. "Well, I don't see why not, if we're travelling to do this..." I let my sentence trail off as I leaned to press my lips to hers, and she kissed me back eagerly. "By the way... I got you," I said against her mouth a second later, and she gave a chuckle.

"I like it when you get me," she replied with that husky tone her voice gets when she wants me, and I let my hands slide down around her rear to hitch her up onto me and then pin her between a boulder and myself. I thrusted my hips into hers hard, and she gasped, her back arching against the stone wall I'd put behind her, making her breasts strain forward into mine, and I felt an explosion of sensations in my torso.

"Wish I had our little friend," I murmured into her ear a moment later, tracing it with the tip of my tongue as our hips continued to move together. I could kick myself for not thinking to bring our toy, and its strappings... she was going to let me do it in my favorite position and I didn't even think about it.

"I wish you did, too," she whimpered, meeting my lips in an aggressive kiss that led us both to the forest floor.

"Turn around, love," I whispered to her, and she obeyed, twisting in my embrace so that her backside was now pressed against me, undulating against my hips still, as my hand wandered to the front of her jeans and pressed hard into the juncture of her thighs. "So ready for me," I went on with a delighted smile, unable to repress the moan I gave, feeling the damp cloth covering her sweet little sex.

"Always," she whispered back, and I felt myself melt at her declaration. I still had trouble grasping the fact that she belonged to me, and I to her. She reached around to wind her fingers in my long hair as I sucked and nibbled her neck and collarbone, her nails scraping against my scalp deliciously, and I felt a growl of pleasure roll free of my throat.

Alice moaned a little forcefully at the noise, and my fingers found home as they slipped between the silky flesh of her stomach and the band of the dark-washed jeans, my pointer finger lifting the hem of her lacy boycuts beneath. I dipped the same finger further down, sucking in a simultaneous breath with her as it slid over her wetness. "Take them off, baby," I prompted her, and she made quick work of them, now on all fours in front of me. Christ, she was beautiful. Perfect. I never even looked at other women, vampires or humans. I used to find others attractive, once upon a time before Alice existed in my life. I ran my hands up the back of her smooth thighs, nudging her knees further apart as I slid between them and cupped her in her most sensitive place, feeling her shudder in my hand. I slowly pushed my thumb inside of her as she pressed back onto my palm, whimpering piteously for me, and I felt her inner walls slick around it, grabbing and pulling for more. I pulled my thumb free, sucked it clean, then bent my mouth to her, reverently tasting her, teasing her to no end.

A sharp snarl from my mate told me she was done with the games. "Now, Andrea!"

Ooh. The given name. She was serious. I raised up behind her, sliding two fingers deep into her, twisting a little to make them touch all over inside of her. She exhaled shakily, and slowly I started to pump against her, and she rocked with my thrusts, using my momentum to bounce back against me. I couldn't help but to laugh a little internally about how long it had taken for me to convince her to try this position at all. Dirty, she had called it.

Indeed. I'd had my mate in every way now.

* * *

><p><strong>AlicePOV:<strong>

It's been hours since we'd left the house. The sun had set, the night was beginning on our little mountain, and the animals were stirring in the darkness. I lay curled up on my Andie's chest, eyes closed in utter serenity, fully satisfied and happy. I fought really hard to maintain my state of euphoria, but I felt a strong vision coming, one of those I couldn't play off at any cost.

_"I only see your treachery, Carlisle! First you utilize Bella against me and my loved ones, then you recruit _Il Fuoco Bambini _into your tribe and expect me to not feel as if you are planning a tragedy?" Aro's high voice was aghast, and Carlisle shook his head._

_"Aro, you see what you want to see, old friend. My family and I just want to live. Kalilah is in love with someone very close and dear to us, and as a result has become family. I did not seek out the Fire Child. She came to us for counsel."_

_"Counsel on the atrocious diet you insist on maintaining! If you would live as nature intended us to live, she would not have needed your counsel!"_

_Carlisle gave Aro a stern gaze. "Nature had no intentions for us, Aro. We were an evolutional accident."_

_"Yes, yes," Aro said with a disgusted air, waving a hand as impatiently as a petulant child. "Soulless monsters, the lot of us."_

_Andie stepped forth from the shadows behind Carlisle, holding my hand tightly as she took a breath of bravery. "We are not soulless, and I can prove it."_

_"Child?" Aro was surprised my tiny mate spoke with such confidence. _

_"Sir," she answered, letting go of my hand and offering it to Aro, offering him every thought she'd ever had. I was jealous at the insight this old vampire was getting from my mate. _

_Aro looked from Andie's yellow eyes to my own, and gave a suspicious glance at Carlisle. "Then show me, young one," he said softly, and he took Andie's hand._

**A/N: Thank you for reading! I missed these two very much, and I can't wait to continue on with the sequel. As most of you know, I am writing a Bellice piece called La Lune Bleu at the moment, so please don't be impatient! I wish I could juggle two full length stories at once, but I just don't think I'm that good lol**

**This one shot is for Aurike, who is one of Andie's first fans, and Villemo79, who went back and read WYTYKH and reviewed every chapter even though it had been completed. Thank you guys.**

**And for Hollowgo, Shabbacabba, and WildImagination28 for being like my own little cheerleading squad. Love you guys.**


	2. Chapter 2

***strikes the band***

**Here it is... the sequel... **

**I am not promising constant updates, as I am still knee deep in La Lune Bleu, my Bella/Alice fic. I should actually get to work on that update next... **

**The poll is now closed, and the winning poll will be announced at the end of this chapter. Thank you for voting, and thank you for your support of this fic.**

**Disclaimer: S. M. is the owner. I just twisted it a little.**

**AndiePOV:**

I knew she had a vision as soon as she stiffened in my arms as we lie together in the mountainous woodlands in which she had chosen to hide, watching the star appear in the twilit sky together after hours of making love: on the forest floor, in the tree tops, against boulders, under the water in the basin lake... We had left our mark all over this place.

Her head was on my chest and I was running my fingertips up and down her exposed side, tracing the curve of her hip over and over while she purred contentedly in my embrace, until the purr cut off and she went rigid. I continued to hold her patiently, waiting for her to come back to me, nestling my face into her dark locks, inhaling her scent, and exhaling my own into her hair, staking a physical claim on her. Mine.

When her muscles loosened back into liquid finesse against me, she turned her ocher eyes to me and I saw fear in them, and I snarled in reflex. "What did you see?" I asked her, trying to keep my tone soft and even, though everything in me wanted to go into protective tracker mode to tear the offender to pieces. No one upsets my mate and gets away with it.

"You... giving Aro your hand," she said quietly, and my brow furrowed. _Why would I do that? _"You were saving us all," she answered my unspoken question. "He is not going to be happy to hear that Kalilah has chosen to stay here, regardless of whatever her reasoning."

"He's going to feel threatened?" I asked her, and she nodded, lying her head back down on my chest, lying her hand over the place where my heart once beat, but now lay dead and cold in its cavity; it remained her possession, regardless of its lifeless state.

"You'll prove to him that vampires have souls... I wonder of he and his ilk have them, too?" she pondered aloud, and I sighed, shifting so that we were both on our sides, facing each other.

"I imagine that they do," I said softly, uncertain, but basing my guess on the fact that every life form I had encountered possessed a soul, even the animals that sustained our appetites. True, the color conformed to a species, as the cougars and mountain lions I so favored shared a similar color of yellow, and deer were all a golden brown. I had a hunch that it was more their instinct, and their natures, rather than an actual soul, as a human or immortal housed. "Did you see how he reacted after he'd touched my hand?" I asked her, and she shook her head.

"No, it ended as soon as you held your hand out to him," she whispered, reaching up to touch my face, and I turned my lips to kiss her palm. "We should get back soon, so I can tell the others, and see how Carlisle wants to handle this... We need a family meeting and a conference call to England."

"Kiss me first? Before we get back and Emmett smells us all over each other?" I requested, and she smirked her sexy little smirk, giving me what I asked for and more as she invaded all my senses and ravaged me from the inside out with the intensity of her lips.

* * *

><p>About four miles away from the house, I smelled the strong scent of a wet dog covered in urine, with feet caked in swamp slime, but mixed with a pleasant aroma of daisies in the summer time. In short, I smelled Leah and Kalilah close to the vicinity, and Alice locked eyes with me, both of us grinning. Payback was <em>such <em>a bitch, especially in times like now, when there were more pressing matters than the little ball of orgasm that I was positive was building in one or the other's stomach. I knew that they were having sex not far from where my mate and I stood. I closed my eyes and searched out the cornflower blue soul-line in my Sight that belonged to the ancient vampire, which was woven together with the burnt orange soul-line that told me Leah was ended physically connected to her right now. I did not run, I actually slunk down into a hunter's crouch, poised on my toes and the tips of my fingers as I followed the line, which thrummed in its completion not long after I'd began tracking them, though my ears had picked up the pants and moans several football fields back from where they were lodged in a shallow cave.

"So warm..." I heard Leah say, and Alice and I looked at each other, both of us surprised. A vampire? Warm, to Leah's fiery temperature that would fry a normal human's brain? A _vampire_ was warm?

"Only for you," the words were whispered back. "My fire simmers only for you, my bold, brave wolf." A whimper followed Kalilah's declaration, and I shook myself into reality, because to be honest, the sounds of their mating was making thoughts about the beautiful girl next to me turn to the more dirty side of my imagination.

"AHEM!" I cleared my throat loudly, needlessly and obnoxiously. I heard two simultaneous gasps, before I heard Leah swear fluently, and then she came stomping from the cave, not bothering to cover her long, dark body reeking of arousal and sex.

"You ticks better have a _good _goddamn reason, that's all I am going to say," she snapped, glowering at me, then Alice.

We both gave her sweet smiles. "Was it a good goddamn reason that day you busted up my first time with my mate as equals? Hmm?" I said, sweet as human blood smells, and Leah growled.

"Okay, fine, ha fucking ha, you got me back. Now kick rocks!"

I rolled my eyes, and Alice snickered behind her hand. "As much as it pains me to say so, we actually have a reason for this interruption. Alice had a vision, and it concerns your mate. Do you care to join us at the main house shortly?" I asked her, watching her face turn red with conflicting emotions; Leah looked torn between the want for information, and going back in there to make her mate see stars.

"Let's go to the house, my wolf," Kalilah said as she came out of the cave, modestly pulling Leah's long shirt around her body. "I want to hear about this vision young Alice had."

"Fine," Leah sighed back to Kalilah, giving her a tiny wave as she turned and phased to wolf, taking off for the house without even waiting on Kalilah to join her.

"How inconsiderate," I murmured to Alice, who gave a little shrug as Kalilah spoke softly from our other side.

"She still struggles with... things being what they are. She is very young, very volatile, but there is a sweetness that underlies all the anger on the surface. I am tapping into her slowly, she is beginning to trust me with herself," she said quietly, reflectively, and in that softly blunt way she generally used to speak. Her black eyes told us she needed to feed, which I am sure was an after-effect of her love-making that we had interrupted, and now those eyes shifted from myself to my mate next to me.

"What is this that you saw?" she asked, and Alice brought her eyes to meet the ancient vampire's, regret evident in the golden hues.

"Aro is about to find out your whereabouts somehow, and he isn't going to like it. It looks like it is going to result in him seeing exactly what Andie's abilities are. This isn't good." Alice's mouth hung open for a second as if she wanted to say something else, but she closed it, and shook her head firmly. Looking back at me with a blazing look in shining ebony eyes, she gripped my wrist so hard it almost hurt though I was not yet out of my newborn year.

"Alice?" I said, giving her a look of concern, barely noticing as Kalilah left us be in the forest, following her mate to the house.

"He won't have you!" she snarled, and I pulled her into my body, holding her tight against me, trying to calm her down before rejoined the gathering of people waiting for us.

I held her as the growls ripped through her and her nose sniffed around my neck her lips pressing against the flesh in its wake, and I swallowed the purrs of consent that fought to rip free of my larynx. When I felt a light scraping of her teeth against my long-still pulse point, a ghost of that last human sensation floated over me, and I couldn't help but moan at the memory. Alice made a noise of satisfaction into the side of my neck, then where her lips rested she opened her mouth and let her tongue trace across the surface, sucking against it as her mouth closed the sensual kiss. But it was what happened next that caught me off guard.

As I began to reciprocate her actions, she opened her mouth against my neck again, only this time I felt the press of her teeth getting a grip, as if she were planning to tear into me enough to harm me. My instincts sharpened to a fine point, and I stiffened around her, making her pause in what I am sure was going to be her biting me... and I do not mean a nip, a teasing bite. Alice was setting up for a kill.

We remained motionless for a solid ten minutes, Alice in my arms with her teeth against my neck, while both of us fought with ourselves, just so we did not clash. When I had enough control to allow myself movement, I gently shifted away from her and took in her demeanor, which looked ashamed. "What was that?" I said to her in a whisper so low no human could have heard.

"I... I was going to mark you," she said, and the expression on her face told me that if she could have blushed, her face would be dark red. "I shouldn't have– I'm sorry."

"You were going to bite me," I stated flatly, and she nodded.

"It shouldn't be done on impulse, it should be a conscious effort between both immortals. I wanted to wait until our wedding night," she added shyly.

"I felt threatened," I admitted, stepping away from her, but she reached out and pulled me back to her.

"I know, I'm sorry," she implored, an earnest light shining behind her eyes, the lilac soul shimmering in the moonlight. She reached up and touched my face, and my eyes slid shut at the contact. "But the instinct nearly overtook me. I hate the thought of Aro trying to claim you as his own, and I know that is what will happen, unless we figure out some way to avoid it, find a way to dodge his reasoning..."

I kissed her to stop the rest of her worries from voicing themselves, holding her close to feel her completely flush with my body. There was no way this Aro would be able to pull me from my forever's side. Alice was a part of me, a vital part to my survival, one that I missed deeply when we were merely playing our Hide and Seek games, the very compulsion to find her as fast as possible. I loved everything about this astounding woman in my arms.

"The others are waiting on us, we should go," I whispered against her lips a minute later, and she nodded, stepping back, but not releasing my hand.

* * *

><p>"AGAIN?"<p>

I couldn't help but wince at Rosalie's snarl, and I saw Alice flinch in my peripheral. I swallowed the surge of anger that rose in me at the sight, and just stood silently beside Alice as we shared with our siblings what she had encountered in her last vision.

Emmett slid an arm around her waist, pulling her into himself, but she shoved away from him angrily, eyes still on Alice, then they flickered around to everyone that was gathered in the room. "No, this isn't right, it isn't fair! Why is that we only have a second's worth of peace before these son of a bitches are on the defensive against us again, even when we have done no offense to them?"

Bella glanced at Edward as he cleared his throat and stared at his blonde sister, his hands buried in the pockets of the khaki chinos he was wearing today. "You know perfectly well why, Rosalie," he stated calmly, giving a nod to Bella, Alice, Kalilah, and me. "We are a large collection of talented individuals, and he seems to think that because we choose to be together as a family, that we have a motive to attack against him... and you know that he wants us for himself."

"So, what if I have an idea?" Bella said quietly, and everyone looked at her, as this was the first time she had spoken up. She, Kalilah, and I had been the quietest of the bunch thus far; Emmett, Jacob, Leah, Embry, and Quil wanted to go to war, were ready for a fight, but Edward, Seth, and Alice argued diplomacy, and Rosalie just snarled and growled, muttering under her breath the entire time. When no one spoke, she sighed, running a hand wearily through her long mahogany hair. "What if... what if we broke up shop, what if we... seperated?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Jacob yelled, obviously thinking that if Bella and Edward were to leave, they would be taking his Nessie with them, and there was no way Jacob the Wolf could leave this land; his spirit was tied to it.

"Jacob... Bella may have a point," Alice said quietly from my right, and I looked over at my mate in surprise. How could she agree to this? We were a family... all of us.

"How can you say that, Flea? If we split up, we're weaker, we're more likely to be taken out one by one," the giant boy argued fiercely, his brown face deepening into a puce color, showing the heat of the rage building inside of him. It was a great testament to his control that he had not phased to wolf and attacked anyone as of yet.

"If we aren't living under one roof... there's no cause for their alarm, and they indeed care about their reputation," Edward said, reading Alice's mind, and she nodded stiffly, obviously not fond of the plan, but not seeing an alternative as of yet.

"Temporarily, of course," Bella said in barely more than a whisper; no human ears could have heard it. "Edward and I will actually move to Italy." Jacob growled, and she shut him up with a stern glare, before going on in a steely voice, "Renesmee will remain here with you, you ridiculous mutt, I trust you and the pack to see to her safety... I can't see the Volturi getting past both yours and Sam's packs."

I could hear the distress in her voice as she decided to leave her daughter with the boy that would someday become more than her best friend, but her son-in-law. Edward's jaw tensed and he looked at his shiny shoes, but he did not contradict his wife's words, obviously well-trained not to go against her wishes. I knew Edward trusted Jacob as much as Bella did, and that his discomfort lie solely in the fact that he himself would not be close enough to bodily protect his little girl.

Rosalie hissed at the information, however, her distrust of Jacob's temper bleeding through, and if I had learned one thing about Rosalie Cullen in the past eight months I've lived here, it's that Nessie is one niece you just don't fuck with. Emmett shook his head, wrapping an arm around his wife's shoulders to try and calm her instincts, which were making her quite volatile.

"Come on, Rosie... We've been wanting to do a honeymoon, anyway. We can travel, just like you want," Emmett said in a promising tone, and Rosalie gave a grudging look at him for a minute, before she nodded, slightly mollified for the moment.

"Fine," my favorite sister-in-law muttered, and she saw me give a tiny grin at her agreement, barely winking at me in return.

"But... I'll miss you guys," Jacob whispered, looking from Bella, to Edward, and the rest of us vampires, even Rosalie, who rolled her eyes at him. But her face held a hint of sadness.

"I will have to go, as well." The ancient's tone was sorrowful, and I saw her giving her mate a long look. "If my presence is putting you in danger..."

Leah's eyes flashed dangerously when Kalilah spoke those words, and her body began to tremble in the dim light of the living room. "You can't," Leah said a second later, something in her expression breaking.

I tore my eyes away from them as Kalilah pulled her upset wolf into her arms, and cooed to her softly, though I filled my mind with the things at hand so as to give them some sort of privacy as she tried to calm Leah.

"What about us?" I asked Alice, who hadn't said anything more, just watching as our family prepared to say goodbye.

"I have an apartment in Paris, but I want to remain close... I think some of us Cullens should stay in the States," she answered, and I thought hard about where we could go, that we would not stick out like a sore thumb.

It would have to be a place with pretty shitty weather, and small enough to maintain a certain reputation, but large enough to blend in. Our home would have to be placed far away from human contact, as I still could not control myself around them. I was getting better, but still could not stand more than a few hours with no more than three. We found that out when I had to meet Jacob's father and two other Elders of the Quileute tribe when I was six months old. Before that was the time I had come very close to attacking a lone hiker in the woods by accident.

"We have a little while, we'll figure it out," she said to me, turning her face into my chest, burying her nose into me.

I caught sight of the ring on her finger, and I bit my lip, thinking about the promise that ring held. "There's something I want done before we all part ways," I blurted out loudly, startling everyone, including myself.

"What's that?" Rosalie asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, as if she had a reason to be suspicious at all.

I looked down into the golden eyes of my mate, and they shined back up at me with the knowledge of what I was about to say. With that, I looked back up to my family and friends. "Alice and I are getting married... here, in Forks, as soon as you can throw together a ceremony."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Twilight characters belong to S. Meyer. Andrea Louise Fowler is ALL my imagination, as is this little fic here.**

**Special thanks to those of you that have recently come across this little story here, and have left such wonderful reviews. Scout4IT... YOU ROCK, DUDE. Thank you sooo much lol**

**And thank you to the rest of you for your unwavering patience, and I hope this is as good as you'd hoped.**

**A.S.R.**

**AndiePOV:**

I felt her presence coming up on me fast, and I panicked a little, taking off for the deep woods as fast as I could run. Jumping straight up into the trees, I continued my escape from the wrathful vampire in pursuit of me, scared for my life if she were to catch up to me. I tossed myself through high branches, feeling the distance between me and my pursuer growing slowly, and finally I felt confident enough that I slowed my pace, gently lowering myself to the mossy ground below the tree in which I had stopped. I closed my eyes, focusing on a particular Line in my Sight, and just as I followed the lilac Soul in the threads of life surrounding it, I felt a thrum, telling me the owner of the Line was physically near.

"Doesn't this wedding mean _anything_ to you?" my Bridezilla said venomously as I opened my eyes to a set of glassy onyx eyes, darkened in unbridled anger. "Have you even began writing your vows, yet?" she went on to say nastily, and I felt my anger rise at the unsaid accusations that I did not want to marry my mate.

Before either of us had even realized I'd moved, Alice was pinned against the trunk of the tree I'd left moments before, and my teeth were pressed into her neck warningly, a snarl rolling long and deep in my throat. Alice froze beneath my dominant position, then gave a soft snarl of acknowledgement to yield to my stature, relaxing her body beneath me. I released the grip of my teeth, and brushed my lips over the indentions left in the side of her neck to soothe whatever discomfort it may have caused. I slowly nuzzled the crook of her neck with my nose as my lips pressed against her collarbone, before moving up the elegant column of her throat to her ear, hearing her breath begin to accelerate.

"I do not need to _write _my vows to you, Mary Alice Cullen," I said in my instinctual tones that dripped with the harshness of our general nature. "I know exactly who you are, what you mean to me, and I know exactly how I am going to take care of you from now until eternity." I pressed her hand over my left breast, where my heart once beat. "Everything you want me to write down is always right here, just silently existing as quietly as the heart that enshrouds the words... the emotions, the passion... everything you are to me is always right here inside of me." I pressed my lips to her jaw to seal my information with a tiny display of how much I meant the words.

"Andie...?" my mate whimpered as I made my way to her mouth.

"Alice...?" I replied a second later, locking lips with her.

"Please just wear the fucking dress," she said flatly, ducking under the one arm I still had planted on the thick trunk of the tree. "It's not much to ask, and this whole 'I'll look stupid' logic is ridiculous, because I have _seen_ how mouth-wateringly amazing you are going to look, and I want to actually live the vision I had of getting you out of it!"

That little weasel...

"Alice, _please! _I am begging you," I said, falling down on my knees on the forest floor, clasping my hands in front of me with a pleading look on my face. "All that frill and lace? Is that really something you want to see me, your tomboy mate, wearing when you see me waiting for you at the altar for the first time?" I couldn't give up hope, this whole fight was about how I skipped my fitting with Alice today, while she was oh-so-eager to take my measurements. I had conveniently taken a small hunting trip to make myself scarce around the house today, since Alice was dead set on taking my numbers to give to Rosalie, who was designing my wedding gown. My poufy, frilly, lacy, gross... _dress._

I had appealed to Rosalie about the matter of my wedding attire, but she refused to budge on Alice's ruling on my show of feminity. I'd have to sway Alice first, and the poor forest around us was in danger of my temper if I couldn't convince my mate to see things my way.

"Yes, it is something I really want to see walking down to you the first time. And frills, Andrea? You haven't even seen the dress. You are letting your imagination get the better of you. I don't want to torture you, my love, and maybe at our next wedding you can wear a tux. But just this once, please trust me." As she spoke, she slowly walked towards me until I had backed myself against that same tree.

She let her weight rest against me, her hands lightly placed on my hips as she bit her bottom lip, looking longingly at my own lips as I couldn't help but to lick them. "Wear the dress, Andrea," she whispered seductively, and my senses kicked up a notch at the familiar tone. "I swear to you that it will be worth it; you're going to love what it does to me." She gave a small grind into me with her hips, a purr coming from one of us, though I wasn't sure which, as she nuzzled my neck with her little pixie nose, taking a deep inhale of my scent.

What else could I do, as she patiently and expertly broke me down, body and mind, and obliterated all my resolve?

I agreed.

"Fine," I snarled softly, closing my eyes as she pulled away, just as I knew she would, but only after planting a happy kiss on my lips.

"Whoo! Okay, well let's get the measurements for Rose, so she can get started on the dress... we only have three more weeks, you know! We have to get the boys-and Leah- appropriate suits, oh baby, you should see Bella in her dress! She looks amazing! And she is all pissed off about it, just like you, but jeez, would it kill you both just to wear the damn things for a few hours?" She rolled her amber eyes, and I opened my mouth to reply with a smart ass remark about her oogling Bella, but she barrelled on without noticing, as had been the case since the plans began a week ago. "The invitations went out this morning, I had Emmett take them to the post as soon as it opened. When he left, I saw that Aro will receive his in exactly a week, and god I don't want to even think about the vision I'll get when he reads it..."

She only stopped rambling because I put my hand over her mouth, and she gave me a sheepish look from behind it, which was so adorable I almost cooed, but instead it spurned a tiny smile. "It's going to be fine, Alice," I said softly, lowering my hand to take one of hers and lace our fingers together as I began the walk back home.

"I know," she answered, giving me a one-dimpled grin, and tapping the side of her head.

* * *

><p>Kalilah and Leah were intertwined on the back porch as we came into the yard, and Kalilah gave us a contented, lazy smile as we passed them, and even Leah gave us a grunt of acknowledgement. We gave a brief smile to them, but Alice was on a mission now that she had my consent to dress me up like a My-Size Barbie, and she dragged me straight up to our room.<p>

"Strip," she commanded once we were alone, and my mouth dropped open at her order, a little affronted that she would speak to me that way. "What?" she said to my incredulous look. "Okay, strip... please?" She held up the thin yellow measuring tape, waving it at me impatiently. "Let's go, Andrea; we haven't got the rest of this century, you know!"

Not quite biting back my scowl, I turned my back to her and lifted my shirt over my head, flinging it off to the side in a small fit of temper. Stupid dress, stupid measurements, stupid... wait... No, _not_ a stupid wedding... _My_ wedding... to this little ball of sunshine that was daintily wrapping the tape around my bare breasts at the moment, her finger "accidentally" brushing against the nipple, causing it to tighten. I swallowed back the groan I wanted to emit, and closed my eyes, stopping all breath, just in case Alice reacted to touching me, because if I smelled her arousal, it would be over for everyone in the house... and probably the house itself, too. My temper and my libido were dangerous when both brought forth at once, and this would constitute as one of those instances.

"Thirty-two," she murmured, releasing the tape to slide it down to my waist, her fingers trailing lightly against my sides, making me physically shiver. I cursed the traitorous reaction to my mate's fingertips, but before I could even release a small snarl of impatience, the tape had tightened against my skin. "Twenty-three," she whispered into my ear, placing a light, lingering kiss against the side of my neck. "We have the same waist size..." Her hands slid around to my front, resting on the bottom of my abdomen for a split second, before reaching down to the button on the front of my jeans, pulling it free from the loop. Her lips had started an interesting path around the nape of my neck, and the betrayal of my body was beginning to be ridiculous as she made me tremble. She hooked her thumbs in the waistband of my boxers, and slid them over my hips and down my thighs, allowing gravity to pool them around the DCs on my feet. At last, she wrapped the tape around me for the last time, now around my hips and posterior, her kisses now open-mouthed and sensual. I felt the urge to pant, to breathe in her scent and become drugged with it, and my fingers twitched at the end of my hands to reach around and tangle themselves in her raven hair to hold her mouth to this spot... right... here. I growled softly in disappointment when I felt the warmth of her lips leave my skin, and she giggled softly at my reaction. "And thirty-two again... your little bubble butt is just a little bigger than mine."

She dropped the tape on the floor, and her hands closed on my ass, squeezing hard for a moment before flipping me around to face her. She gave me a sweet kiss, tracing the tip of her finger around my jaw. "Since you've been such a good girl, do you want your treat now, or later when we play Hide and Seek?" she whispered a moment later, pulling her lips away from mine just enough to phrase her question.

"Both," I answered honestly, reaching up and releasing my ponytail to let my hair fall free, the way Alice liked it to be when we made love. Something about "the just fucked" look made her crazy with want of me, and I wasn't about to complain. Alice purred delightedly as her fingers indeed twisted themselves in my mane, slightly pulling as I kissed her. "But don't you have to give Rosalie my measurements for the dress?"

"Fuck the dress," Alice sighed, a small, devilish grin pulling at the corners of her mouth, barely showing her dimples.

I couldn't stop the grin that broke out on my face. "I don't have it to wear it?" I asked hopefully, eyes rolling back when her tongue slid up the column of my throat.

"Yes... but I am going to take care of you, before I go speak with Rose."

Take care of me, she did... possibly for a little longer than we'd planned, as we didn't emerge from our room until right before dawn the next morning. At some point during our alone time, Rosalie lost her patience and came to the door, not daring to barge in on mated vampires having said time. "Just give me the fucking numbers, Alice, I want to get started so I can get around to doing what you two are fucking doing!"

I tried to pause, but Alice, being my highly sexual mate that she is, didn't let me stop driving into her as she called/moaned out a number with my every thrust. "Thirty.. two... twenty... three... thirt- ... oh, god, Andie, fuck! Thirty-two!"

"Fucking ridiculous," Rosalie muttered as she walked away to her sewing room.

* * *

><p>The days went on, and I went about life as normally as I could muster, only with the backyard slowly becoming an elaborate wedding altar, with scores of beautiful, exotic floral fanfare, in which Alice looked amazing standing, surrounded by all the bright colors that reminded me of how happy and upbeat my mate was, and made me feel a sense of pride every time... she was mine.<p>

The subject of marking had come up between Carlisle and I during one of the control sessions I'd requested with him while he was in town, as I had been working with Alice in his abscence, as she now had next to no desire for human blood. She joked that it was because after smelling and tasting mine, she'd had the finest, and she now found any other human mediocre in comparison. Carlisle said that Alice was onto something, and that it was much the same for Edward, after Bella.

The discussion on marking hadn't been as awkward as I had anticipated, and I found myself very thankful of Alice's father's ability to soothe the most turbulent of emotions with the soft timbre of his "doctor's" voice. And he dissected it by asking questions, and I found that my answers were explanation enough for him, so he saved me the embarrassment of unsuccessfully trying to relay my still-newborn emotions and instincts.

"When there is danger, what is your first instinct? To protect? Or to be protected until bodily engaged, and then to protect, second to the physical motivation?" Carlisle asked me as his leading query, and I blanched a little, not expecting this to come up in the conversation.

"To protect," I said, a little confused as to what it had to do with anything. Of course I wanted to protect Alice, of course my first instinct was her life over my own. But that was the same for both parties, right?

He nodded to himself at my answer, as if I had confirmed something for him. "Andrea, vampires are very territorial, and I know you are aware of this. The marking instinct derives from the innate desire to own and possess the mate entirely, which is a sort of defense mechanism against outside threat, as most vampires feel to be the best protection for their own mate. The scars that remain from our venom burning the vampiric flesh serve as a warning, a sign of danger, no matter if it is a mark shared between mates, or old wounds from battles long won."

He gave me a hard look, and I got the message he was sending. Biting another vampire was rare, and usually done in defense, and the fact that you only walked away with those scars meant that there was a death on your hands: once vampires begin fighting, they rarely stop as long as one still lives. I remembered gaining this knowledge, and seeing my brother Jasper for the first time with my new eyes, feeling the instinct to run from this dangerous being, but knowing that it was Jasper, and feeling his calming waves wash over me, allowing my body to relax from the defensive coil it'd tried to assume. It had been unnerving.

"There is a dominant party, and a submissive party in mated vampires that only start to truly show themselves once a bonding between the pair has been established. That is the reason why I think you reacted with such vampiric instinct in regards to Alice, even when you were still human. You see, one of the two will be the 'dominant' partner, the one that has the strongest dominant trait in their vampiric, or even human makeup. When you were human, Alice had the strongest dominant trait, merely by proxy of being the stronger of the seperate species, and your instinct yielded yourself to it, even appreciated the protection she provided. Am I correct?"

I nodded, but I didn't reply, as I was beginning to follow what he was explaining to me. But I didn't want to interrupt him and end up confusing myself.

"Are you the dominant partner during intercourse?"

I didn't hesitate. "Mostly."

He nodded to himself again. "I think that your dominant trait is now stronger than Alice's, as her proxy is now void after your transistion. This means that you will probably be the one to initiate the marking, once it occurs. As she has once held the dominant position in the mating, Alice may struggle with you for the first bite." He paused, and looked a little pained at this, and I made a note to ask him what the look was about once this discussion was finished. Clearing his throat unnecessarily, he went on. "Ultimately, the one with the strongest trait at present will win, and after the first bite, the submissive trait in the other will allow the rest to occur, and recognizing the compliance, the dominant party will allow its mate to reciprocate the bites, only after it is finished with it's own marking ritual."

"So the marking isn't one bite? That's all I see on you guys... always along the neck or the collarbone."

Carlisle gave me an amused grin, thoughtlessly reaching up to give a fond caress to the silvery crescent that rested proudly on the base of his neck. "Those are the warnings to others that we're mated... the rest are generally easily hidden by clothing."

I swallowed the venom that rose in my throat at the thought of biting Alice in places easily hidden by clothing, and reflexively sniffed the air for her scent to reassure myself that she was near, finding her close indeed; right on the other side of the wall, no doubt listening to the conversation. I refused the urge to rise from my chair and crash through the flimsy wood and sheetrock between us. "So, is there any level of control through this?" I asked Carlisle after a few moments of collecting myself, and pushing my instinct back. "Or will I be full on vamp, no conscious me at all?"

"I should think it would depend on the vampire, and their personal level of control over the instinct... but even with full control, it is not something to be taken lightly, and completely solitude is needed, because outside interference could be deadly for a third party, no matter who it is... Esme or I could accidentally stumble upon the marking between you two, and you would work as a team to destroy us, not realizing at all who we are."

He let me sit in my stunned silence for a moment, but then he smiled gently. "You don't have to worry about that, really. The island is completely isolated, and we are fully prepared to make the arrangements for your stay well before you arrive there next week, and the repairs after you leave."

"Repairs?"

"I told you Alice will struggle, and I am sure there will be pieces of the house missing before she relents."

I knew what he was saying. Alice and I would be nearly battling through the marking.

Well, shit. I didn't know what else to say to Carlisle after he had finished his explanation, so I slowly rose to my feet and went for the door, but before I could leave the room completely he called me back. "Andie?"

I turned my face back to look at him in acknowledgement, but my feet stayed planted to the wooden floor. "Sir?"

"It might help if the two of you discuss the possibilities of whom may have the strongest gene... Alice may be less likely to struggle..."

We both heard the scoff from the next room, and I closed my eyes and swallowed the soft snarl that rose in my throat. "Thank you," I said instead, giving him a small smile for his advice.

Now all I had to do was convince my mate that she should let me have reins. No sweat, right?

**Chapter three for you all :)**

**Questions? Comments? Just general love? Press the button, I love the reviews almost as much as my girlfriend lol**


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys... sorry if you thought this was an update, and I really hate to do it this way, but I owe you all an explanation, I feel...

I'm very sorry I dropped off the face of the planet for the last year. But in my own defense, it was not the best year of my life. Issues arose in Savannah that caused us to have to make the move back to Atlanta, so there was a big thing about that... I don't even want to get into what happened with the living arrangements once we were back, and all the drama and BS that ensued.

The biggest thing that happened over the last year was that in April, my mother was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. It had engulfed her pancreas completely, and had grown to her liver. Despite the estimate of four months to a year on her lifespan, she decided to try and fight it anyway, and underwent invitro chemotherapy treatments that ultimately made her even more sick than she was. The first time she went into the hospital for the side effects of the chemo was the Tuesday before Mother's Day here in the States, and I prayed that she would be out that Sunday for plans that I had made, but no... I spent Saturday night and all day and night Sunday there with her, watching Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters on my phone, half lying in a hospital bed with her.

She was in and out for several weeks, before the doctors placed her on hospice care, and she was brought home. She hung in there, she was stubborn only for us kids, me and my sister and brothers. I was terrified, and was dumb enough to let her know, and she struggled that much harder, suffered that much longer, just to be with us as long as she possibly could.

I was with her the day before she passed. It was a Saturday, and I had to work that night, but had driven up to her apartment anyway, just because I had a spare few hours before I was due in, and I sat with her for several hours that afternoon. She was almost completely unresponsive, so I didn't speak, just sat there for hours with her holding her hand, and taking in every feature of her hands and face that I could, seeing past her yellow complexion to my mommy beneath it. A friend of mine at work at had told me that when her mother was passing in the same manner as mine, she told her it was okay, that she didn't have to worry about her anymore, that she needed to go home... and I had kept that in my head for two weeks before that day beside her bed, holding her hand for what would be the last time.

That day, I leant close to her ear so that her husband would not hear and I said to her, "Mommy... we're okay. It's okay for you to go now, you've got other things to do... you've been brave, but MawMaw, PawPaw, and Aunt Becca are all waiting for you to throw you a party... you can go home, Mama."

I kissed her cheek, told her I loved her, and tried to stand to go before I lost my composure, but when I went to pull my hand free, she flexed her hand on mine, a silent request I not go, so I sat back down and dissolved into helpless sobs again... I tried not to do that in front of her, but if she didn't want me to go, I couldn't help it...

I wasn't late to work that night, and I fought through a busy, ugly shift with everything on my mind, and got off the next moring to get my paycheck and tell the boss I was headed up to my mom's after a nap.

I went to the grocery store with my best friend, and on the way home, my cell went off and I saw my mother's baby sister's name on my screen. I knew it had happened. I knew, and I didn't want to answer, so I sent her to voicemail. Then my stepfather's name popped up right behind it, and I ignored him, as well. Then he called my best friend. She answered, glanced at me, and said nothing but "yes", "okay", "uh huh", and "bye". When she hung up, I looked at her, my heart in my stomach, churning and making me sick.

"It happened, didn't it?" I asked.

"I need to you focus, man, you're driving... please just wait..." But she knew I knew.

That was July first.

I haven't been quite right since, and it all still feels surreal. So, please forgive me for leaving La Lune Bleu and Hide and Seek hanging, I'm not done... I'm just... crazy lol

BUT

I've been working on a Bellice OS the past few days, and it's almost done, if you're interested.

I'm doing better, so just give me time. I really apprecite the PMs and the reviews in my abscence, even if I didn't write back, you now know why.

With my amazing girlfriend, and my circle of loving friends showing such support and love, I am healing. And really, I guess that's what counts. Right?

My best,

A.S.R.


End file.
